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A few years ago a man wrote a book about his upper middle class kid’s decision to join the USMC. (Can’t remember names now, but they were featured several times on FNS) How could a kid from that environment think to join the service? He spoke of the rection from friends, colleagues, neighbors ... as if it were the strangest decision a kid had ever made. Not like it was experimenting with pot or anything socially acceptable.

It's definitely a different culture. Here in Kentucky, I was in church one Sunday morning and we were having a special service for high school and college graduates. They get everybody up on the podium and they tell what they're going to do after high school. One of the high school grads had enlisted in the Marine Corps, and when he announced that, he got a standing ovation from the congregation.

How could a kid from that environment think to join the service? He spoke of the rection from friends, colleagues, neighbors ... as if it were the strangest decision a kid had ever made. Not like it was experimenting with pot or anything socially acceptable.

Lookup (Marine) Lt. Nathan Ficke. Lt. Ficke attended Columbia University before enlisting in the Marines. He was featured in HBO's "Generation Kill", a miniseries about the 2nd Marine Recon's experience in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Ficke is a bit of a cult-hero in leftwing Blogs because: 1) he's 1 of them by virtue of education, and (2) he became skeptical about the War in Iraq (which the Left interprets as oppostion to the War).

To be clear, I'm not commenting on Lt. Ficke, just the Left's affection for him.